


black tea

by souyoseta



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, ok just a little angst at the end, old men drink tea together: the fic, they kiss as well (lol), yeah ummmm... theres not a lot besides that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27001216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/souyoseta/pseuds/souyoseta
Summary: "While green tea usually loses its flavor within a year, black tea retains its flavor for several years."A fanfic about using tea as a peace treaty when your labmate is mad at you.
Relationships: Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Comments: 10
Kudos: 49





	black tea

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy this little thing!!

In a time where the world was going _absolutely_ to shit, barely hanging on by its Jaeger program, there were a lot of things that suddenly became delicacies. Luxuries. Newt would’ve argued one of those things was Dunkin’ hot chocolate. Unfortunately for his labmate, Hermann hadn’t lived anywhere with a Dunkin’ Donuts and therefore didn’t know just what he was missing out on. However, one newfound luxury they shared a love for was tea.

Thinking about it, Hermann was exactly the kind of guy to care a little too much about tea. The kind of guy to be particular over how his tea was made, all stiff-necked and professor-like. But Newt was picky as well, so it probably said more about him than Hermann. He really couldn’t judge the man.

Newt, _for your information_ , liked a black and rose tea blend. He liked it with two tablespoons of sugar, and he liked it lukewarm. He didn’t enjoy his tea scalding, unlike a certain companion of his.

It took Newt forever to get it out of him, but Hermann liked Earl Grey, with a small splash of milk (“Which _ruins_ the tea, by the way, Hermann. Milk doesn’t go with tea.” “Then, what _does_ it go well with? Do tell.” “I don’t know. Coffee?”), and no sugar. He, as aforementioned, wanted it as hot as possible. It would steam up his stupid little spectacles, and he wouldn’t seem to mind in the slightest. It drove Newt crazy.

In a bad way, he would clarify to others. Nothing Hermann did drove Newt crazy in a good way, of course.

Out of the two, Newt got the raw end of the deal, tea _and_ apocalypse-wise. He had to special order his rose tea, and it cost nearly five times its old price. Earl Grey was common enough that Hermann could find it in the PPDC’s kitchens, tucked into a cabinet next to an old kettle. Another thing Newton could gripe about without guilt. He could whine all day about how Hermann could get his tea perfect, but it felt like a rose blend cost him half his salary.

There was one saving grace. Tea was a wonderful peacemaker. When the two were at each other’s necks, and when Newt took it a bit too far, sometimes the only thing that could save the evening was a nice cup of tea. Tonight was one of those nights.

Hermann had been complaining about a splash of Kaiju Blue that had found its way to the edge of a set of notes, and Newton wasn’t about to admit it was his fault.

“You shouldn’t be picking up notes with your disgusting, bloody gloves on!” Hermann was red in the face. “If I hadn’t had a copy…!”

“Well, you _do_ have a copy, so I don’t see what the deal is!”

“The deal is—! The deal is the _principle_ of it! The deal is you putting your dirty hands on my work!”

“You’re not the only one doing important work around here!”

“It really does feel like it.”

“Your equations couldn’t _begin_ to match up to the shit I’m learning about Kaiju, up close and personal! My work is going to save the world!”

Hermann’s brow furrowed, just a little more than it had been before. His lip twitched.

“I’m finished with this conversation, Dr. Geiszler.”

_Dammit._ Newt knew he had struck a nerve. He knew what “Dr. Geiszler” meant: _I’m so mad at you I can’t even bear to yell at you right now._

Newt put his earbuds in and returned to his work. He didn’t have time to deal with this. He hadn’t been bluffing when he said he was doing important work. World-saving work.

Nearly an hour passed before Newt stripped his gloves off his arms and pulled his earbuds back out. He’d found something very interesting, actually, and he intended to tell Hermann.

“Herm, listen to this,” he pattered over to Hermann’s side of the lab. “Listen, I found evidence of Kaiju _cancer cells_ , which is _super_ interesting. “Why is that interesting?” you may ask. Well, as I’m sure you know, every living thing has cancer cells. But that implies that Kaiju cell division is similar to the cell division of _Earth_ creatures! Now, I suspect… Hey, what’s up?”

Hermann wasn’t even looking at him, turned away in his chair, staring down into another stack of notes, occasionally crossing out a section.

“I know you hate everything about Kaiju guts, but this actually seems _pretty important_ , Hermann.”

No response.

“This is pretty childish.”

Nothing.

“Fine. I get it.” Newton headed back over to his side of the lab. He busied himself with mopping up some Kaiju fluids that had made their way to the floor. He couldn’t work if Hermann wouldn’t let him bounce ideas around. He thought best outloud. 

After reorganizing his desk once or twice out of boredom, Newt knew he needed to get out of that lab. And he was just bored enough to _walk_ around the Shatterdome. A foreign concept to him. It was the middle of the night, but the ‘Dome was still bustling with workers on the night shift. Not exactly what he was looking for when he sought out a moment alone. After almost running into a technician sprinting down one of the winding hallways on her way to her station, Newt decided the kitchen would be empty enough to gather his thoughts.

He poked his head into the huge pantry, hoping to find something sugary to satisfy his sweet tooth. He got lucky—prepackaged cookies, probably as old as the Kaiju attacks themselves, but still edible due to the preservatives they were pumped with. _Whatever,_ Newt thought. _A cookie’s a cookie._

Newt poked around a few minutes longer to find some milk—cow’s milk too—and black tea. It wasn’t Earl Grey, but it was chai, which was close enough. Newt decided he didn’t want to carry boiling water in a mug halfway across the Shatterdome, so he borrowed an electric kettle, a few packets of tea, an entire gallon of milk, and two plain white mugs. 

“Miss me?” Newt called out when he returned. Nothing from Hermann. Time to get to work, then.

Approximately seven minutes later, he placed a mug down next to Hermann’s notes, within his field of view. Newt leaned against his labmate’s desk and sipped, waiting for a response.

“Is this a peace treaty?” Hermann didn’t look up.

“Maybe.” Newt smiled behind his mug.

“You didn’t have to go through the trouble. A simple sorry would’ve been fine.”

“It was no trouble.” 

“Does this have caffeine?”

“I think so.”

“Good, I’ll need it.”

“Up to something big?”

“That’s what I’m paid for.”

“Well, tell me about it.” Newt looked at Hermann’s notes. Hermann hated using paper when it wasn’t necessary. He thought it was a waste, especially when there was a perfectly good invention called a chalkboard right behind him. But sometimes his leg would twinge, and Hermann would decide he didn’t feel like falling off a ladder that night.

“I’m developing an equation to predict Kaiju attacks. Wouldn’t it be nice to be prepared for once, instead of scrambling, all-hands-on-deck to get Jaegers ready?”

“Yeah, that’d be great actually.”

“That’s my hope,” Hermann said with a smile. “I mean, think of it. Imagine how many lives would be saved.”

Newt smiled at that too. Hermann broke the eye contact.

“Erm, what was it you were saying before? About Kaiju cancer cells?” Hermann sheepishly brought up.

“Oh, um, yeah. That. I was suspecting common ancestors.”

“How do you figure?”

“I’m talking _way_ back. Pre-everything.”

“A bit theoretical for a biologist, don’t you think?”

“So, you’re saying I _don’t_ look like a conspiracy theory kind of guy. Okay.”

“Actually, you’re right. I take that back.”

“If only I could get my hands on living Kaiju cells…”

“Well, you have the br… Oh, nevermind. My apologies. It’s late.”

“Yeah, heh, no cell division in the brain, Doctor,” Newt grinned.

They sipped in silence for a moment.

“It _is_ late,” Newt said. “Maybe we should head to bed.”

Hermann shook his head. Then, he brought his hand up to his mouth, thinking.

“I feel like I’m on the edge of something.”

“I’ll stay up with you, then.”

“You really don’t have to.”

“No, I mean it. It’s no trouble.”

Newton eventually pulled his desk chair up to the side of Hermann’s desk, silently watching him scribble away. Every once in a while, he would punch some numbers into a beat-up calculator, then go back to scribbling. Newt would watch his mug, and as Hermann drained each cup, Newton would prepare another piping hot one for him.

After a few hours, though, Newt felt himself drifting off. He had been asleep for a few blissful moments when Hermann stood up, smacking his hand into the desk with enough force to snap his labmate awake.

“I’ve got it!”

“Huh—what?” Newton blinked, eyes refocusing on Hermann’s delighted face.

“I’ve done it, Newton. This formula… It, well, let me show you.”

Newton knew immediately that it would go directly over his head.

“I mean, it’s so simple, just an exponential growth equation, but here’s the _beauty_ of it. I can get it down to the _hour._ ”

Hermann ran his finger along a long list of numbers and letters. Now, Newton went to college. He knew how to do math. But he knew that this equation was far outside of the realm of basic logarithm he had learned in class.

“I plug in the K value with which Kaiju attack we’re on—fifty-one—and… There.” Hermann wrote down a huge number, which Hermann plugged into another equation. “This will make it readable as a date, instead of some abstract string of numbers.” 

June 7th, 2024 at 7 AM.

“Only three days…” Newton said under his breath.

“Three days more preparation we get,” Hermann said. 

A moment of silence.

“I’ll… Um, yeah, I’ll go get the Marshal,” Newt stood. “I can run over there, and—”

“Wait,” Hermann said. “Newton, wait.”

“Huh?”

Hermann grabbed him by his stupid little skinny tie and pulled him close.

“Is this alright?” Hermann asked.

Newt snapped out of his daze and nodded. Hermann tugged him an inch closer and then… _Wow_ , they were kissing. The uptight Hermann Gottlieb was _kissing_ Newt. Oh, and with a bit of tongue? That was unexpected.

It was over as quickly as it started, but Hermann’s smirk promised more later.

“Thank you for the tea,” Hermann said when they pulled away from each other. “It was exactly what I needed.”

“Hah, well, you know,” Newt stuttered. “I’m gonna—! I should… Well…”

“You should go to the Marshal,” Hermann suggested.

“Yeah, I should go to the Marshal,” Newt nearly tripped over his desk chair on his way out. “I’ll, um, catch you later?”

“We work together, Newton,” Hermann grinned.

“I mean, like, with the kiss.”

“I will kiss you as much as you want as soon as you get back, if that’ll make you happy.”

“Cool, awesome,” Newt gave Hermann two thumbs up. “Catch ya on the flip side.”

Newton usually wasn’t a fast runner. He’d never been very athletic. But today it felt like his feet were flying through those Shatterdome halls.

* * *

It was late when Hermann greeted the guard of the cell, headed in to visit Newt. It had been a few weeks since the Mega-Kaiju attack and the subsequent capture of Dr. Geiszler. The world was calming down again, as it always did. The world always went back to usual, Hermann had learned.

Newt hadn’t really talked to him the last time he had stopped by. Or the time before that. Or the time before that, when the guards wouldn’t let anyone in his cell, so he had to talk through an intercom system. 

“See if you can get anything out of him,” the PPDC had told him. “You’re the closest thing he has to a friend.”

That had stung, and Hermann didn’t know exactly why.

“Hello, Newton,” Hermann said as he pushed the door open with his foot. “I have something special for you.” Hermann realized he was talking to Newt like he was a child, but with Newt’s insistence on ignoring him, he  _ felt _ like he was talking to a small, angry child.

“Do you remember, back in the lab, when I’d get mad at you, and you’d make me tea?” Hermann asked. It’d been more than ten years since then, but he remembered it clearly. He could only hope Newton remembered it as well as he did. 

“I made you a cup, the way you like it,” Hermann continued. “Or, at least, as best as I can remember. Forgive me, it’s been a long decade.”

Newt looked over his shoulder at Hermann, briefly, but it was enough for Hermann.

Hermann took a seat beside Newton. (“I don’t think you should do that,” a cell guard had told him during one of his first visits. “You should keep your distance from him.”) He held out the to-go cup, filled with rose tea, with a splash of milk and three teaspoons of sugar. He’d even left it out to steam for a moment so it wouldn’t burn Newt’s mouth.

Newt slowly took the cup from him, bringing it up to his lips to sip at it warily. Hermann imagined what they were feeding him there was bland at best and unpalatable at worst. A nice cup of tea may be a good change of pace.

“I can bring you tea more often, if you’d like,” Hermann offered.

Newt didn’t say anything.

“Or, I could bring something else. I know you used to be a fan of sodas.”

Newt gave him a look that said  _ “Stop talking.” _

“I’d appreciate it if you’d tell me about the last decade, Newton. I don’t know anything about you anymore.”

Newt actually snarled at that.

“Shut up.”

His voice was raspy, like he hadn’t used it in weeks.

Hermann closed his mouth.

“You put milk in it,” Newt said slowly. “I always told you that milk ruins tea.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I can—”

“Shut up,” Newt said again. “I’ll drink it if you’ll stop talking.”

Hermann didn’t say another word.


End file.
